A RETAIL development in Aberdeen has secured a major scoop after Mackie’s of Scotland chose it as the location for its first ever retail outlet.
The ice-cream maker has signed a 15 year lease to open a flagship ice cream parlour and coffee shop in the city’s £107 million Marischal Square development, creating up to 20 full-time equivalent jobs.
Karin Mackie, marketing director at Mackie’s also confirmed that the shop is just the first in what the company hopes will grow across Scotland and across the world.
The 70 cover shop is due to open next summer – along with the development itself – and will offer customers more than thirty flavours of ice cream, plus Mackie’s own chocolate.
The firm plans to combine produce from its farm with artisan coffee and fresh local foods, in a strategy that the company said will “eventually become a familiar fixture in many of Scotland’s towns and cities”.
Karin Mackie, marketing director, said: “We are proud of our north east heritage and we will work hard to make this a real positive addition to the centre of Aberdeen. We are very much viewing this as the next chapter for the business and want to create the flagship branch in our home city.”
Ms Mackie said the company had been travelling around the UK and across countries such as Italy and US to sample and experience some of the world’s best ice cream parlours and gelateria chocolatiers.
She added: “We are looking forward to bringing all we have learned to Aberdeen.”
Ms Mackie said the Aberdeen shop would be operational for at least a year before a second outlet is considered.
“[We will] learn what works and then hope to replicate the best – at first in the other major cities across Scotland. The company vision is an aim to become a global brand, and retail units further afield are part of the overall vision, but that is not being worked on yet.”
The Marischal Square includes Grade A office space, restaurants and cafes, a 126-bedroom Residence Inn by Marriott and extensive civic space around the historic Provost Skene’s House, which is undergoing a £500,000 refurbishment as part of the development.
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